Lessons #37 and 38
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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual exposition not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +
+ GWT = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New English Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
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Instructions to various groups of believers (Titus 2:1-6)
1You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine. 2 Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.
3 Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. 4 Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. 6 Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled.
We are considering the third virtue essential in domestic life that older women are to instill on younger women which is that of being always busy in a profitable manner. This virtue is described in the NIV of Titus 2:5 with the verbal phrase to be busy at home. We indicated that the phrase is concerned with teaching younger women to be good homemakers. Consequently, we started to consider the question of what the older women should teach younger women with respect to this virtue. Our answer is that the older women should primarily teach younger women to imitate the activities of the woman considered the model wife in the Scripture, that is, the capable wife described in the book of Proverbs. We stated that there are two activities that should be conveyed to younger women by older women, who themselves presumably fit the description of the capable wife, which are providing for the needs of the household with respect to clothing and food and being a good manager of the household finances. We started in our last study to consider her activities. The first activity of the capable wife that keeps her busy is providing for the needs of her household that we described as consisting of two areas. The first area concerns food for the family that involves two things. A first thing is that she gathers all the food for her family wherever she can find it at the best price. It is this action that is described in the simile She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar of Proverb 31:14 that we considered in our last study. So, we proceed with the second thing she does.
Activities of the capable wife (Proverbs 31: 13-22, 24)
13She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands. 14She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar. 15 She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls. 16 She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard. 17She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks. 18 She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night. 19In her hand she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers. 20She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy. 21When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in scarlet. 22She makes coverings for her bed; she is clothed in fine linen and purple. 24She makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies the merchants with sashes.
The second thing the capable wife does to meet the needs of her household with respect to food is to cook it, as indicated in Proverbs 31:15:
She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls.
The capable wife is devoted to ensuring she cooks food for her family. As you may expect, this activity is one that some women today do not want to do or care less about doing. In effect, there are some wives who are content with not cooking food for their family. I am saying that there are many young wives who do not want to cook for their family but rather want to feed them all the time with what we often describe as fast food or want to eat out all the time. They are content in giving their children most of the time peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. A woman who does this sort of thing is one that cannot be described as a capable woman or one that is busy all the time. I am saying that some of these young women rarely serve hot nutritious meals to their family because they are lazy to cook although some of them do not work outside the home. It is understandable that a woman who works outside the home would occasionally not provide hot cooked food but there is no excuse not to provide hot cooked meal or well-prepared meal for the family, especially in the days in which we live where we have refrigerators and microwave. There was no problem of this in the ancient world of agricultural economy where families lived near their farms so that a wife cooked food daily for the family. Today, families for the most part, do not live in farms since we are not agriculturally based economy and so there should be a change in this matter of cooking for the family by the capable wife that requires a different approach. A capable woman who is concerned about feeding the family properly will prepare ahead of time the meals for the family even if she works outside the home. Take for example, a woman who is a capable wife will think ahead with respect to meals for the week in terms of how to feed her family. Consequently, she could prepare lot of food over the weekend and refrigerate them for the family to eat during the week by reheating them using the microwave. Of course, my comments so far have been focused on the younger women, but it is equally true that some of the older women who should teach the younger women are themselves guilty of not providing their household with good cooked meal. This is particularly the case when the children are grown. That children are grown does not mean that the household has ceased to exist so long as the woman’s husband is alive. Failure to cook meals for the husband is a failure that indicates that the wife is no longer capable in the sense we are considering and so no longer the kind of wife that is pleasing to the Lord. The point is that an important activity of a capable wife is to provide cooked food for the family.
A person who is prone to being rebellious to God’s word or who wants excuse not to obey God’s word would say to me where in this passage of Proverbs 31:15 does it say a wife should cook food for the husband or household since the word “cook” is not found in it? True, the word “cook” is not in the passage but it is implied as I will demonstrate from what is written in verse 15 that we are considering. To begin with, the first thing that is said in verse 15 with respect to the capable wife that shows she is not lazy is that she habitually wakes up early in the morning as in the sentence She gets up while it is still dark. Literally the Hebrew reads And she arises while it is still night. This is because of two words used in the Hebrew. The first is a Hebrew word (qûm) that may mean “to arise,” “to get up, stand up.” The word may mean “to come to fruition” or “to establish”, as it is used to speak of God’s plan coming to fruition in Proverbs 19:21:
Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.
The sentence it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails may alternatively be translated the purpose of the Lord will be established. However, in our passage, of Proverbs 31:15 the Hebrew word is used in the sense of waking up and arising out of bed so that it means “to get up” from sleep. The second Hebrew word (lǎylāh) translated “dark” in Proverbs 31:15 means “night” as the period between sunset and sunrise, as it is used to describe the time of the activity of the woman who replaced her dead child with a living child of her roommate in 1 Kings 3:20:
So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while I your servant was asleep. She put him by her breast and put her dead son by my breast.
In our passage of Proverbs 31:15, the word is used to describe the time before sunrise while it is still dark outside. Thus, the capable woman is one that wakes up quiet early in the morning while it is still dark outside.
The capable wife wakes up quiet early in the morning for a purpose, as indicated by a Hebrew word (we-) that appears twice in the second half Proverbs 31:15 that is translated “and” in the NASB and the ESV but its first occurrence is not translated in the NIV. It is true that the English versions that are more literal in their translation translated the Hebrew word “and” in its both occurrences in the second half of verse 15 but the first occurrence of the word is used to express purpose in which case the Hebrew word should be translated “so that, that” or translated in such a way as to reflect purpose. Most of our English versions did not convey this meaning but the TEV and the CEV reflect this interpretation although they did not use the expression “so that, that” but the fact they began the second half of verse 15 with the verbal phrase to prepare food indicates purpose.
The purpose of the capable wife early rise from bed is given in the sentence of Proverbs 31:15 she provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls. Before we comment on this sentence, we should recognize that the focus of the passage that described the capable woman is her activities that indicate she is a busy woman who works hard for the benefit of her household. I draw your attention to this point because some of us are prone to be shallow in our spiritual life so that we look for excuses for not doing what we should, or we look for passages that will justify our actions. This being the case, a woman may think that the first thing the capable woman did after she woke up was to immediately attend to the need of her family but that seems unlikely. This is because a woman of the caliber described in Proverbs 31 must be spiritual minded as reflected in her character mentioned in the passage. The implication is that the capable woman would rise early first to attend to her spiritual life before getting involved in the mundane things of life. We say this because those who are spiritually minded endeavor to attend to their spiritual life the first thing in the morning when they wake up. This we can deduce from examples we find in the Scripture. Hannah and her husband woke up early to worship, as we can gather from 1 Samuel 1:19:
Early the next morning they arose and worshiped before the Lord and then went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah lay with Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her.
The psalmist indicated it was his habit to wake up early to pray, as implied in Psalm 119:147:
I rise before dawn and cry for help; I have put my hope in your word.
The Lord Jesus during His earthly ministry, no doubt, rose early in the morning to pray, as we can gather from Mark 1:35:
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.
The examples we have cited help us to deduce that the capable wife would normally begin her day by attending to her spiritual life first before dealing with the daily affairs of her life. But this information is not given in our passage because the focus of the passage is on her activities that should convince us that she is not a lazy woman but one who is hard working and never cherishes idleness.
Be that as it may, the purpose of the capable wife early rise from bed regarding her physical activities is to provide food for her family as in the sentence of Proverbs 31;15 she provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls. I submit to you that although the word “cook” is not used in our passage but the sentence implies that she cooked meal for her family as I will demonstrate. The word “provides” of the NIV is translated from a Hebrew word (nāṯǎn) that basically means “to give” but it has other nuances. The word may mean “to allow, to let”, as it is used to indicate that God kept Abimelech from having sexual relationship with Sarah in Genesis 20:6:
Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her.
The expression not let you touch her may alternatively be translated not allow you to touch her. The word may mean “to pay” wages, as it is used in the instruction of how to deal with a daily laborer in Deuteronomy 24:15:
Pay him his wages each day before sunset, because he is poor and is counting on it. Otherwise he may cry to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin.
The instruction Pay him his wages is more literally you shall give his wage. The Hebrew word may mean “to set” food before someone, as it is used in miracle of Prophet Elisha’s feeding of 100 people in 2 Kings 4:44:
Then he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the LORD.
Here it is bread that was to be set before the people. The word may have the meaning of “to feed”, as implied in Micah 3:5:
This is what the LORD says: “As for the prophets who lead my people astray, if one feeds them, they proclaim ‘peace’; if he does not, they prepare to wage war against him.
The prophet here indicates that the false prophets declare peace to those who pay them for their services by providing food for them so that those who do not feed them are their enemies. The clause if he does not is more literally but whoever puts nothing into their mouths indicating that our Hebrew word has the meaning “to put.” This aside, it is in the sense of setting food before someone that the Hebrew word is used in Proverbs 31:15. In other words, the capable wife gets up early to set food before her family. It does not require great imagination to recognize that she could not have set raw food items before her family. I know that people eat cold cereal but that was not that common at that time. Consequently, we should conclude that the woman cooked food for her family. As I mentioned, the translators of the TEV and the CEV captured the sense of the Hebrew word as involving cooking food for the family so that the sentence of the NIV She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family is translated She gets up before daylight to prepare food for her family in the TEV or the CEV. Anyway, there should not be any misunderstanding that the second thing the capable wife does to meet the needs of her household with respect to food is to cook it. She prepares the right kind of meal for the family.
We should be clear that what the Holy Spirit conveyed about the capable wife is that she feeds her family with food that she prepared or cooked. The passage does not tell us whether she prepared only breakfast for the family when she got up or whether she cooked food for the day. It is possible that she only prepared breakfast for the household with lunch and supper prepared later. Nonetheless, the implication is that she took care of the family’s food for the day. This interpretation seems to be supported by the phrase and portions for her servant girls. We state that this verbal phrase seems to support the idea that the capable wife provided food for the day for her family because the Hebrew phrase translated and portions for her servant girls is subjected to two possible interpretations because of the word “portions” of the NIV. The word “portions” is translated from a Hebrew word (ḥōq) with several meanings. It may mean “a prescribed task”, as in the assignment given to the Israelites as slaves in Egypt, as we read in Exodus 5:14:
The Israelite foremen appointed by Pharaoh’s slave drivers were beaten and were asked, “Why didn’t you meet your quota of bricks yesterday or today, as before?”
The phrase your quota of bricks is more literally your task of making bricks. The word may mean “prescribed portion” or “allowance of food”, as it is used to describe the allotted portion of food to the priests of Egypt that kept their lands from being taken over by Pharaoh, as we read in Genesis 47:22:
However, he did not buy the land of the priests, because they received a regular allotment from Pharaoh and had food enough from the allotment Pharaoh gave them. That is why they did not sell their land.
Here our Hebrew word is translated “allotment” that refers to the food allowance or prescribe portion of food that goes to the priests. There are other meanings of our Hebrew word but the two meanings that we have given are responsible for two possible interpretations of the phrase and portions for her servant girls of Proverb 31:15 of the NIV. A first interpretation is that the phrase portions for her servant girls refers to allowance of food that the capable wife provides for her female slaves. The second interpretation is that it refers to the daily chores or tasks that the capable wife assigns to her maids. Each of these interpretation makes sense and fits the context. The interpretation of the phrase referring to allowance of food makes sense because of the preceding sentence is concerned with food so that it makes good sense that the author was still thinking of food when he wrote down the verbal phrase we are considering. The second interpretation that refers to the task assigned to maids also makes sense because it would seem strange that the maids would be singled out after it has been said that the capable wife cooked food for her household since ancient household included the slaves. Consequently, it is difficult to be certain of the interpretation of the phrase, but the first interpretation is probably what is meant. This is because of the context of provision of food. It is likely that the phrase and portions for her servant girls may be translated indeed portions for her servant girls to emphasize the wife’s character of being fair to her maids. In other words, the phrase may be included to indicate the capable wife is kind to the point that she takes good care of her maids. It is perhaps the case that the capable wife supervised the slave girls as they prepared breakfast for the family. Furthermore, although the second interpretation speaks to her managerial capability in that she knows how to assign tasks to her maids, but it is probably that her compassion is being emphasized. This notwithstanding, we contend that the capable woman who, no doubt, is compassionate, good manager but that she takes care of her family by cooking their food for them or supervised its cooking by the maids. I know that in this country, this kind of teaching causes problem for some women who do not think they should cook for their husbands. But for a believing lady, it is important that she should cook for her husband if she is going to be the capable wife that pleases the Lord. Thus, the older women should encourage the younger women with respect to cooking food for the family despite whatever is the trend in the society. This brings us to the second area of activity of the capable wife that keeps her busy.
A second area involves clothing for her household and herself. The idea of the capable wife seeing to the clothing needs of her house hold is introduced in Proverbs 31:13:
She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands.
The word “selects” is translated from a Hebrew word (dārǎš) that may mean “to seek with care”; “to inquire”; “to investigate”; “to make supplication.” In our verse, the meaning is that of “to seek with care” but because the entire verse implies she is at work with what she sought then the Hebrew word may be translated with the word “selects” of the NIV or “obtains” of the NET.
The items the capable wife seeks out and finds are given in the phrase wool and flax. The word “wool” is translated from a Hebrew word (ṣěměr) that means “wool”, that is, a material for making clothing and fabric, originally from the hair of sheep. The word “flax” is translated from a Hebrew word (pēšěṯ) that may mean “linen”, that is, cloth made of flax, as the word is used in the instruction of Deuteronomy 22:11:
Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.
The Hebrew word may mean “flax”, that is, a plant which is eventually processed to produce textile material in the sense that fibers were extracted from the stalk and spun into thread. It is in this sense of the plant on the process of dying out that the Hebrew word is used to describe what Rahab the prostitute had on top of her roof during the visit of the two Israelite’ spies, according to Joshua 2:6:
(But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.)
In our passage of Proverbs 31:13, it is used to refer to the final product of fibers for spinning and weaving into linen.
It is true that the Hebrew did not directly state that the capable wife made clothes here in Proverbs 31:13, that is implied in the verbal phrase and works with eager hands of Proverbs 31:13. It is because it is implied she made clothes that the translators of the CEV plainly rendered the Hebrew line as she gladly makes clothes. This notwithstanding, it seems that at this point that the Holy Spirit wanted to emphasize the attitude of the capable wife as she makes clothes or carries out other of her activities that we have the Hebrew line translated in the NIV as and works with eager hands that literally from the Hebrews reads and she works in the pleasure of her hands. The word “works” implies making of clothes since the raw materials for doing so have already been mentioned in the first part of the verse. Nonetheless, the point of the Hebrew line, as we have indicated, is to portray the attitude of capable wife towards her activities. There are many wives who work hard to meet the needs of their household, but some do not do it with pleasure. In effect, they carry out their activities without enjoying what they do. In fact, they resent their activities which may be made worse if their husbands do not compliment them and so they consider their work as a necessary evil. That is a wrong attitude for a believing wife to have with respect to her activities carried out in her home. A Christian wife should enjoy her activities in her home as every believer is expected to enjoy his/her work, as implied in Ecclesiastes 3:22:
So I saw that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work, because that is his lot. For who can bring him to see what will happen after him?
Work is not a part of the curse due to the fall as that was instituted before the fall, as recorded in Genesis 2:15:
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
Work became hard because of the fall, as implied in Genesis 3:19:
By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”
This aside, the instruction in Ecclesiastes indicates that humans are expected to enjoy their work but more so of those who are believers. This being the case, a wife should enjoy her activities at home that are necessary to meet the needs of her household. Her activities are her work at home and so should be carried out with joy. We are saying that every believing lady should carry out her activities at home with joy, that is, to be under the control of the Holy Spirit. Joy is a facet of the fruit of the Spirit. Therefore, for a wife to exhibit joy when she carries out her household activities, she must be controlled by the Holy Spirit. Her joy when she carries her activities is enhanced by the understanding that although she is working to care for the families but that she is indeed serving the Lord Jesus when she carries out her activities with joy. She will be complying with the instruction of the Holy Spirit through the pen of Apostle Paul in Colossians 3:17:
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Anyway, we are stressing the fact that the Holy Spirit conveyed that the capable wife has a great attitude towards her activities of meeting the needs of her family with respect to their clothing, the emphasis being on how she takes pleasure in her activities. It is her attitude that is the focus of the verbal phrase and works with eager hands of Proverbs 31:13.
The focus on the actual activity that involves taking care of the clothing of the household of the capable wife is given beginning in Proverbs 31:19:
In her hand she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers.
This sentence described the process the capable wife goes through to provide clothes for her household. The word “holds” of the NIV is translated from a Hebrew word (šālǎḥ) that may mean “to send, to dispatch”, as it is used in Proverbs 22:21:
teaching you true and reliable words, so that you can give sound answers to him who sent you?
However, in the Hebrew form (Piel) that the word is used in our passage, it may mean “to let go, to release”, as it is used for the release of bird in cleansing ritual that pertains to infectious disease in Leviticus 14:7:
Seven times he shall sprinkle the one to be cleansed of the infectious disease and pronounce him clean. Then he is to release the live bird in the open fields.
The word may mean “to stretch out”, especially of the hand to the poor in the sense of being generous as it is used to describe the capable wife in the passage of Proverbs we are considering, that is, Proverbs 31:20:
She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy.
It is this meaning of “to stretch out” that is used in Proverbs 31:19 only that the sense is that of laying hand on something.
The first thing the capable wife lays her hand in our passage is described as “distaff” in the sentence of Proverbs 3:19 In her hand she holds the distaff. The word “distaff” is translated from the Hebrew word (kîšôr) that appears only here in the Hebrew Scripture; it is a spinning instrument that spinners used in their work. It is a spindle or short wooden staff onto which a flax or wool was attached before it was spun into thread.
A second thing the capable wife takes hold of is the “spindle” as in the second verbal phrase of Proverbs 31:19 and grasps the spindle with her fingers. The word “grasps” is translated from a Hebrew word (tāmǎḵ) that may mean “to lay hold of” in the sense of to attain such thing as honor or wealth, as it is used in Proverbs 11:16:
A kindhearted woman gains respect, but ruthless men gain only wealth.
The word “gains” may be translated “attains” as in the NASB. The Hebrew word may mean “to accept, to receive, that is, gain or acquire an object or benefit by payment or gift,” as it is used for accepting of bribes in Isaiah 33:15:
He who walks righteously and speaks what is right, who rejects gain from extortion and keeps his hand from accepting bribes, who stops his ears against plots of murder and shuts his eyes against contemplating evil—
The word may mean “to uphold” in the sense of helping or keeping from falling as the psalmist used it in his prayer in Psalm 41:12:
In my integrity you uphold me and set me in your presence forever.
The Hebrew word may mean “to hold firmly.” It is in this sense that the psalmist used it to indicate he has remained faithful to God by keeping His commands in Psalm 17:5:
My steps have held to your paths; my feet have not slipped.
The word may mean “to hold up, to support” as it is used to describing holding up of Moses arms by Aaron and Hur as Israel battled the Amalekites to ensure Israel won the battle as recorded in Exodus 17:12:
When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset.
In our passage of Proverbs 31:19, the sense of the Hebrew word is “to hold firmly” by grasping.
The thing the capable wife grasps or holds firmly is the spindle. The word “spindle” is translated from a Hebrew word (pělěḵ) that appears only twice in the Hebrew Scripture. In its first use, it may mean “crutch”, as it is used in David’s curse of Joab for the coldblooded murder of Abner in 2 Samuel 3:29:
May his blood fall upon the head of Joab and upon all his father’s house! May Joab’s house never be without someone who has a running sore or leprosy or who leans on a crutch or who falls by the sword or who lacks food.”
Some English versions used the word “spindle” here instead of “crutch” implying that David was wishing for the male descendants of Joab to be either effeminate or disabled because it was women and the crippled who did the tasks of weaving. That aside, the other meaning of our Hebrew word in its second usage in the Hebrew Scripture is “spindle-whorl”, that is, a slender rounded rod with tapered ends about a yard (3 feet) long, fashioned (usually with weighted bottom) as a device used in hand spinning to twist and wind thread from a mass of wool or flax held on a distaff. It is this second meaning that is used in our passage of Proverbs 31:19 in describing the activity of capable wife. In any case, that the capable wife firmly takes hold of a “spindle” implies that she goes on to make clothes for her household as we can gather from what is described in verse 21. But meanwhile the human author of the poem digressed to describe one of the virtues of the capable wife.
It is possible that those who are quite busy become so intense that they forget to be courteous to others or to treat others kindly. This was not the case with the capable wife so that her virtue of kindness is described in Proverbs 31:20:
She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy.
The kindness or the generosity of the capable wife towards the needy is described in the first Hebrew line, that is, the sentence She opens her arms to the poor of the verse in the English and further explained in the second Hebrew line which is the second verbal phrase extends her hands to the needy of the verse.
We contend that verse 20 speaks to the generosity of the capable wife that is given in the first sentence and then explained in the second. To prove this point, we need to examine the key words used in both parts of the verse. The word “opens” is translated from a Hebrew word (pārǎś) that may mean “to spread out” relating to a folded garment or cloth, as it is used to describe the unfolding of the bed cloth by the parents of those whose daughter was accused of not being a virgin at marriage, as we read in Deuteronomy 22:17:
Now he has slandered her and said, ‘I did not find your daughter to be a virgin.’ But here is the proof of my daughter’s virginity.” Then her parents shall display the cloth before the elders of the town,
The sentence her parents shall display the cloth is more literally they shall spread the cloth. The word may mean “to stretch out of the hands” say in prayer, as that is the sense of the use of our Hebrew word regarding prayer in 1 Kings 8:38:
and when a prayer or plea is made by any of your people Israel—each one aware of the afflictions of his own heart, and spreading out his hands toward this temple—
The stretching of hands may have the sense of “to seize”, as it is used to describe what the enemies of Israel will do to them with respect to their possessions in Lamentations 1:10:
The enemy laid hands on all her treasures; she saw pagan nations enter her sanctuary—those you had forbidden to enter your assembly.
The sentence The enemy laid hands on all her treasures is literally The enemy has stretched out his hand over all her treasures which is an idiom that conveys that the enemies have seized or plundered all treasures. The Hebrew word may mean “to break” of bread, as the word is used in Lamentations 4:4:
Because of thirst the infant’s tongue sticks to the roof of its mouth; the children beg for bread, but no one gives it to them.
The clause but no one gives it to them may alternatively be translated but no one breaks it for them although the literal Hebrew reads for them there is not breaking bread. To indicate that the sense of the word in Proverbs 31:20 is that of being generous, the human author directed by the Holy Spirit used a second word (šālǎḥ) that may mean “to send, to dispatch” that we encountered in Proverbs 31:19 where we indicated that it may mean “to stretch out”, especially of the hand to the poor in the sense of being generous as it is used to describe the capable wife in the passage of Proverbs we are considering that is, Proverbs 31:20. Thus, this second Hebrew verb used enables us to recognize that the first Hebrew word that is translated “opens” is concerned with being generous.
The second key word in the first sentence of Proverbs 31:20 is “poor” that is translated from a Hebrew word (ʿānî) that means “poor” in the sense of being needy, as in Deuteronomy 15:11:
There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.
It may mean “poor” in the sense of being afflicted or oppressed, as in Job 36:6:
He does not keep the wicked alive but gives the afflicted their rights.
The word may mean “humble”, as in Proverbs 3:34:
He mocks proud mockers but gives grace to the humble.
Hence, the Hebrew word has several meanings but to ensure that the poor in view is one that is needy then the author used a second word “needy” in the second part of Proverbs 31:20. The word “needy” is translated from a Hebrew word (ʾěḇyôn) that means needy or poor in the sense of lacking material possessions so describes a class of people who are virtually destitute, the day laborers of the ancient world, completely dependent on others for their daily survival. It is used here in the sense of one who is needy but not reduced to begging. It is in the sense of the poor who is needy that the word is used in Deuteronomy 15:7:
If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother.
Hence, there can be no doubt that the poor in view that is the recipient of the generosity of the capable wife is one that is needy or even destitute that requires help from others.
There is one more indicator that the second Hebrew line or the second verbal phrase in the NIV of Proverbs 31:20 is intended to explain the first Hebrew line or the first sentence in the English translation. It is the word “and” used in the verse to connect the two parts of the verse. The word “and” is translated from a Hebrew word (we-) that no doubt means “and” but it has several other usages. It seems that it is used in verse 20 as a marker of explanation so that it may be translated “that is” showing that the second Hebrew line explains further the first. Our interpretation implies that we can translate the verse as She opens her arms to the poor, that is, extends her hands to the needy. In this way, it is clearer that the second part of the verse explains the first sentence so that it is clear that the verse is concerned with the generosity of the capable wife. It is probably this understanding that led some English versions such as the TEV to combine both sentences so that the verse reads She is generous to the poor and needy. In any event, the capable wife is a generous person. Subsequently, all wives should emulate her.
06/16/17